March 29, 2011: Fun At Funspot!

When PAX East ended I took a few days in the Boston area to visit my friends at Onell Design. One of the two days was spent in Matt's house going over ideas, looking at some of his upcoming projects, and digging into really rare and obscure toys that should be in a museum. That day was way too much fun . . . just like every other time I've visited Matt's home.

But the first day, the Monday right after PAX, we took a drive north into New Hampshire to visit Funspot, an amazing arcade that's packed with arcade games from the late seventies and eighties. And a place where I:

• Played more Road Blasters (see the Killer List of Video Games) than anyone should in one sitting. And I mean sitting, because this was the full-size version of the game. And I've got the photo to prove it.
• Dumped token after token into a candy-pushing machine. I think in the end we spent about $8 for $0.70 worth of candy. I even posted a video of the machine that shows Matt's luck in trading coins for candy. The $8 shoved in the machine was totally worth it!
• Ate some very bad pizza. No, really, I mean bad. As in I felt sick for the next day. Again, totally worth it because it just helped with that "back in the eighties" feeling I had the entire time I was at the arcade.
• Battlezone? Yes, please. I'll shove some tokens into this classic any chance I get. Again, see the Killer List of Video Games if you're unfamiliar with this awesome vector graphic machine.

I created a Funspot set at Flickr to document the hours of madness that I lived through at the arcade. I recommend that anyone getting the chance to visit Funspot take the opportunity. And take your cash, because you're gonna need it!

-- Phil Reed